Monday, March 21, 2011

I caught Obama's speech in Brazil yesterday and marveled at just how good a speaker he is... I believed (well, just for a moment or two)! You really do have to admit though that our commander-in-chief, once he's ready to move on from the POTUS gig, has a real future selling used cars, aluminum siding or even (dare I say it) next-gen anchors!

I mention this because while I was watching the speech and shopping, "So It Goes" was sitting at anchor a couple of miles away and I had total confidence in our Brittany-style anchor...

Several readers have written asking about our ground tackle and why I've not jumped on the next-gen anchor bus. So, just to get it out of the way, here's the answer and a little background.

Some years back we lost Loose Moose 2 to a lightning hit in St Thomas, or to be more precise, a set of circumstances that began with a lightning hit. LM2 was uninsured and we lost most of our worldly possessions and our home of many years in one fell swoop... Talk about serious bummers!

I mention this, simply to point out that we understand better than most that losing your boat is more than an inconvenience or hassle. It is heartbreaking and took us years to recover from our loss and it is not something we ever care to repeat.

Which brings us back around to anchors as they are the closest thing to real insurance on your boat. For most of us, it is responsible 24/7 for keeping the boat and those aboard safe. This is why we've thought long and hard about what sort of ground tackle that will keep us safe. Trust me, if there was a perfect anchor we'd be the first to buy it no matter what the cost.

We've used the Brittany/FOB sort for many years and have found that they work well in most every situation and bottom type we have found ourselves in. This sort of anchor has worked very well for us and since they do, we simply do not see the need to adopt a new untried (by us) system into play simply because someone tells us that our old-gen is not as good.

I'll also throw in the fact that we have seen any number of monohulls, multihulls, and powerboats drag by us (or into to us) over the last few years with various next-gen anchors while we held fast. To be fair, I should also add that we have seen no shortage of boats with old-gen anchors drag by as well. For us the bottom line is since we have confidence in our current ground tackle I do not feel a burning need to go out and change anchor systems anytime soon.

But, when all is said and done, the reason I have not jumped on the next-gen bus is that I can leave my boat for several hours to go shopping knowing that when I get back to the boat I can pretty much expect my boat to be where I left it.